*The following narrative is from one of our HIV-positive scholarship applicants. It has been minimally changed to remove any identifying information.*
I was living in with an ex-boyfriend; we were still sleeping together. I had made a life for myself where we were and I didn’t want to relocate. He began telling me that I needed to go get checked. Subsequently, I got an STD check and was told that I am HIV-positive and that I also have HPV (human papillomavirus) as well. At the time, I looked at it as being a death sentence and did not know what I was going to do or how long my life would